With that in mind everything became much easier, or more interesting, I guess. Those who know me well will know I love Lord Of The Rings - the books, the films and, in my junior years, playing the ‘role playing’ game, so my knowledge of this world is pretty damn good. Anyway, to the films. I love them but there are possibly a few tweaks I’d make. Ways to make them a little better. So, starting at 12 and working down, this is what I’d do.
12. Elrohir and Elladan didn't make it, and they should have! The Elves are cool, even with minor parts and these guys had an important role in the book. (They will have a bigger part in The Hobbit 2 & 3 though or so the rumour mill suggests).
11. Wild Men of Drúadan Forest – well, this one might not get much support from others but I quite liked this part of the book. They had a major role in helping the Rohirrim get to Minas Tirith and I’d have loved to see how they could have been visualised on screen.
10. Battle of Bywater & Scouring of Shire – ok, ok, so the end of the book (and the film for that matter) was long enough anyway, but killing Saruman at Orthanc didn’t meet with my approval.
Right, I also have some problems with the final battles, mainly due to so many major (and minor) missing pieces so next up is:-
9. The Knights of Dol Amroth & Imrahil - how could you miss these guys out? They were serious players from the South with their heavy horses and they even made it to the final battles in the books. They also rescued Faramir from his retreat, not Gandalf, although I did like Gandalf in that part. Some might argue he is there, but he’s not named so he isn’t in my book.
8. Oh, and what about the other Southern Kingdoms men that helped Aragorn at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, hmmm! (more soldiers for more battlefield action!)
7. The Grey Company – a serious bunch of Rangers, all the way from the north, through the Paths of the Dead to the final battles, OR NOT, if you watch the film.
6. Tom Bombadil, Goldberry & the Barrow-wight – well I’ll likely not find much support here either, but if you ‘geek-out’ and check out Bombadil and Goldberry in MERP (google it!) then they are key characters in Middle Earth, plus Merry needed that magic sword for the Witch King.
5. Glorfindel - for me, missing his minor role from the book (what book) was a great shame. He has such great history and depth and you could still have got Arwen in alongside him. Oh, and who else would confront 5 Ringwraiths and see them all retreat! One serious Elven Lord to miss out.
4. The Elves at the Hornburg - now that is a major piece of creative licence. Don't get me wrong, I love the Elves but really, they shouldn't have been at the Hornburg getting slaughtered. As cool as it was to see some serious ‘elf fighting’ it shouldn’t have happened. The elf fighting should have been seen in point 3 below.
3. The attacks on Thranduil's realm, Lorien, Dale & Erebor - I would love to have seen some cutaway shots showing all these principal realms under attack during the final part of the film. For me, it would have shown just how close to victory Sauron came across the whole of Middle Earth, plus of course some awesome fighting.
2. Orcs speaking Orcish/Black Speech (whatever you want to call it) would have been great. Subtitling their gutter chat would have added something for me. (That said, Jackson got it pitch perfect in the Hobbit though)
And in my top spot of things to change would be…
1. Legolas and his superhuman ‘doings’ - I really don’t like some of the unbelievable moments played by Legolas such as his sliding down a shield at the Hornburg or killing of the Mumakil. Lord above, the Elves weren’t supermen, Mr. Jackson!
Now, with those points made and my long-held rant now on the internet, all-in-all Peter Jackson did a superb job. I’d have taken a few bits out and added a few more in, and we’d have seen a better, and significantly longer and more expensive film - but his was pretty good too!
So it’s the Hobbit next for the Tolkien adaptions, lets see how he gets on with the 3 hobbit films… now don’t get me started. 3 films indeed!
Simon J
Credit to:
www.one-ring.co.uk
www.panhistoria.com
New Line Cinema
lotr.wikia.com
Glorfindel by Magali Villanueve
All images found on Google. No offense or copyright infringement intended. Images can be removed if requested by originator.
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